North America chemical rail weakens slightly

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Chemical railcar traffic in North America continues to make up the year-to-date deficit with 2019 while holding firm versus 2018, reported Chemweek.

Volume for the year through 7 November was down 3.8% from 2019 and down 5.5% from 2018, compared to declines of 4.0% and 5.5%, respectively, for the year through 31 October. On a four-week basis, volume was up 0.4% from 2019 and down 4.4% from 2018 (chart), weakening slightly from the previous week, when the respective figures were up 0.8% and down 3.2%.

Volume for the week totaled 44,039 carloads, up 1.8% year-over-year (YOY) and up 2.0% from the previous week, according to data released by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Chemical railcar traffic in the United States contributed 32,636 carloads to the total, up 5.9% YOY and up 6.9% from the previous week. For the year to date, US chemical railcar traffic is down 4.6%.

Canadian chemical rail traffic totaled 10,468 carloads, down 9.5% YOY and down 10.2% from the previous week. For the year to date, Canadian chemical railcar traffic is down 1.9%.

Chemical railcar traffic in Mexico totaled 935 carloads, a YOY increase of 6.7% and a sequential decrease of 4.0%. For the year to date, Mexican chemical railcar traffic is down 4.1%.

As MRC informed earlier, Russia's output of chemical products rose in September 2020 by 6.7% year on year. At the same time, production of basic chemicals increased by 6.1% year on year in the first nine months of 2020, according to Rosstat's data. According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation, polymers in primary form accounted for the greatest increase in the January-September output. Last month's production of primary polymers decreased to 852,000 tonnes from 888,000 tonnes in August due to shutdowns in Tomsk, Ufa and Kazan. Overall output of polymers in primary form totalled 7,480,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 16.4% year on year.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Sadara Chemical Company’s net losses for the third-quarter (Q3) of 2020 fell by 65.5% yearly to SAR 513,705, reported Chemweek.

The decline in Q3-20 losses was driven by a growth in sales and a rise in average selling prices for products, according to a bourse filing on Wednesday.

Revenue for the July-September period of 2020 amounted to SAR 2.8 million, an annual rise of 15.2%.

During the period from January to September of the year, the losses were down by 17.6% on an annual basis to SAR 3.2 million.

As MRC wrote earlier, Sadara Basic Services Company cut run rates at 350,000 mt/year low density polyethylene (LDPE) and 750,000 mt/year of high density/linear low density polyethylene (HDPE/LLDPE) swing units, in Jubail by 16%, due to the Saudi oil facility attack that happened on September 14, 2019, which reduced the company's supply of feedstock.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high HDPE shipments increased.

Sadara Chemical is a USD20 billion petrochemical joint venture between national oil giant Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Petroineos, a joint venture (JV) between Ineos and PetroChina, will mothball a crude distillation unit and fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) at its 210,000-b/d crude refinery at Grangemouth, UK, after several months of operating at just over 50% of capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Chemweek.

Maintaining the 65,000-b/d No.1 crude distillation unit and the 25,000-b/d FCC in a mothballed state would “reduce future incurred costs associated with operating these two older plants,” the JV says. The shutdown of the units will reduce the permanent workforce at Grangemouth to 450 employees, a reduction of around 200 jobs. The FCC unit has been offline since April due to poor gasoline market demand. Petroineos also entered into negotiations with the UK government in April, according to media reports at the time, which said that a government loan of up to GDP500 million (USD663 million) was being sought by the JV.

The Petroineos facility also supplies naphtha feedstock to the adjacent petrochemicals facility at Grangemouth owned and operated by Ineos. Major turnaround work at Grangemouth was postponed earlier this year due to the pandemic.

Up to 2 million b/d, or 15%, of Europe’s refining capacity is expected to close between 2020-2025, according to IHS Markit, similar to closures experienced between 2009-2014, with the rationalization process accelerating due to the destructive impact of COVID-19 on fuels demand and the wider energy transition.

The company achieved an operation profit at Yuan 60.28 billion in January-September, flipping from Yuan 6.04 billion of operation loss in H1, thanks to selling its pipeline asset to PipeChina in Q3, while crude price and demand recovery from COVID-19 pandemic also helped.

It gained Yuan 66.32 billion of operation profit in Q3, compared to Yuan 2.66 billion operation loss in Q2, the result showed.

As MRC informed earlier, PetroChina has nearly doubled the amount of Russian crude being processed at its refinery in Dalian, the company's biggest, since January 2018, as a new supply agreement had come into effect. The Dalian Petrochemical Corp, located in the northeast port city of Dalian, was expected to process 13 million tonnes, or 260,000 bpd of Russian pipeline crude in 2018, up by about 85 to 90 percent from the previous year's level. Dalian has the capacity to process about 410,000 bpd of crude. The increase follows an agreement worked out between the Russian and Chinese governments under which Russia's top oil producer Rosneft was to supply 30 million tonnes of ESPO Blend crude to PetroChina in 2018, or about 600,000 bpd. That would have represented an increase of 50 percent over 2017 volumes.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers" inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.

PetroChina Company Limited, is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. It is China"s biggest oil producer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced it has completed the first phase of its large-scale multi-year predictive maintenance project to maximize asset efficiency and integrity across its upstream and downstream operations, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as machine learning and digital twins, ADNOC’s predictive maintenance platform helps predict equipment stoppages, reduce unplanned equipment maintenance and downtime, increase reliability and safety, and is expected to deliver maintenance savings by up to 20%. Against a backdrop of unprecedented market conditions, the adoption of new technology remains at the heart of ADNOC’s strategy in maximizing the value from every barrel of oil, while delivering the greatest possible returns to the UAE.

The predictive maintenance project, which was announced in November 2019, is being implemented over four phases and is one of the largest in the oil and gas industry.

Mr. Abdulmunim Saif Al Kindy, executive director, People, Technology & Corporate Support Directorate at ADNOC said: “We are pleased to have achieved this important project milestone, particularly given the ambitious scale of ADNOC’s predictive maintenance project. We are already seeing significant operational benefits and cost savings, and we intend to continue to embrace the power of digitalization and AI as we further enhance performance and drive value across our business.”

ADNOC’s predictive maintenance project is part of the company’s digital acceleration program, which focuses on embedding advanced digital technologies across the company’s operations.

The first phase of the project covers the modeling and monitoring of 160 major turbines, motors, centrifugal pumps and compressors across six ADNOC Group companies. All four phases of the project are expected to be completed by 2022 and the project will enable the central monitoring of up to 2,500 critical machines across all ADNOC Group companies.

The predictive maintenance platform is an integral part of ADNOC’s Panorama Digital Command Center at its headquarters and is implemented in partnership with Honeywell, using the Honeywell Asset Performance Management and predictive analytics enterprise solutions.

The predictive maintenance project is just one of many digital transformation initiatives by ADNOC to embed cutting-edge technology across its entire value chain. Other digital initiatives include its AI and big data-driven “Panorama Digital Command Center;” its smart subsurface data analytics “Thamama Subsurface Collaboration Center;” and its use of computer vision technologies, big data modeling tools for value chain optimization, and blockchain for hydrocarbon accounting.

As MRC reported previously, in early May, 2020, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) began a gradual restart of its Ruwais oil refinery complex after a scheduled maintenance shutdown. The Ruwais complex, which has capacity of 835,000 barrels per day, was shut down early this year, the ADNOC spokesman said.

And in late July 2019, ADNOC said its Ruwais refinery west cracker was offline for maintenance.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers" inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
MRC

MOSCOW (MRC) -- Midstream operator Easton Energy has agreed to buy a petrochemical pipeline system that runs from Houston to Corpus Christi from oil major Exxon Mobil, moving to capitalize on South Texas' growing petrochemical market, said Chemweek.

The South Texas Pipeline System has 720 miles of pipeline and runs from Exxon's Clear Lake and Katy Gas Plants to Energy Transfer Partners' King Ranch Gas Plant and the Port of Corpus Christi. The line has historically been used to transport everything from oil and natural gas liquids, but most recently shipped refinery grade propylene.

The system will also connect to Easton Energy's 50 million barrel salt dome storage facility in Markham, Texas, which is located between the petrochemical markets in Houston and Corpus Christi.

The acquisition is anticipated to close early next year. The companies did not disclose a price on the deal.

As MRC informed earlier, Exxon Mobil Corp has also recently announced it will lay off about 1,900 employees in the United States as the COVID-19 pandemic batters energy demand and prices.

We remind that ExxonMobil has undertaken a planned shutdown at its cracker in Singapore. The company halted operations at the cracker for maintenance on September 14, 2020. The cracker is expected to remain off-line till end-October, 2020. Located at Jurong Island, Singapore, the cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 1 million mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 450,000 mt/year.

Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,496,500 tonnes in the first eight months of 2020, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of all ethylene polymers increased, except for linear low desnity polyethylene (LLDPE). At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 767,2900 tonnes in the eight months of 2020 (calculated using the formula - production minus exports plus imports - and not counting producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.

ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world"s oil and about 2% of the world"s energy.
MRC